A prosecutor of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Offem Uket, who handled the controversial Malabu Oil fraud trial has broken his silence over a publication alleging that he deliberately bungled the case for a fee.
Uket who has threatened to sue has alternatively requested the online newspaper that published the report to retract the story and follow it up with a public apology.
He contended that the newspaper deliberately libelled him having purportedly failed to seek his own side before publishing the story which damaged his image.
In a statement, Uket denied the entire allegation.
“I categorically deny that I was offered or I took bribes from Mr. Wole Olanipeku SAN and Mr. Mohammed Bello Adoke to sabotage the trial of the defendants involved in the case, or that I had previously confided in colleagues of being pressured with offers of financial inducement from them in order to compromise the case or any other case for that matter,” he said
Below is Uket’s full statement:
EFCC SACKS TOP PROSECUTOR ACCUSED OF TAKING BRIBES FROM WOLE OLANIPEKU, BELLO ADOKE TO SABOTAGE MALABU OPL 245 FRAUD TRIAL
My attention has been drawn to an online publication by ‘The People Gazette’ of 3rd April, 2024 with the above caption. The online report had falsely reported and maliciously blackened me of compromise and sabotage of the trial of Mohammed Bello Adoke and others by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, and that prior to their imaginative compromise, I had confided in my ex-colleagues in the office on how Mr. Wole Olanipeku SAN, a defence counsel in the case, and Mr. Bello Adoke pressured me to accept bribes from them.
I categorically deny that I was offered or I took bribes from Mr. Wole Olanipeku SAN and Mr. Mohammed Bello Adoke to sabotage the trial of the defendants involved in the case, or that I had previously confided in colleagues of being pressured with offers of financial inducement from them in order to compromise the case or any other case for that matter.
I have always strived to be ethical and professional in handling every assignment entrusted to me throughout my stay at the EFCC. It was the same ethical and professional standard that I brought to bear in prosecuting the case.
I must point out that apart from the charge filed at the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT); there are two other charges pending before the Federal High Court (FHC) based on the same facts. While the two charges at the FHC are predicated on the provisions of the Money Laundering Act (MLA), the charge before the FCT high court is based on the Penal Code.
The charges at the FHC were filed by the EFCC between 2016 and 2017. I became involved in the prosecution of the charges in 2019 when I was drafted in as part of a team constituted to prosecute the two charges before the federal high court. The charge pending before the FCT high court was filed in 2020 by my predecessor from whom I inherited all the three cases.
When my predecessor left the EFCC in March, 2022, I was directed to take over the prosecution of the cases, which were then at various stages at the time. At the time of his departure, three witnesses had already been taken in the case pending at the FCT high court. On my part, I took seven other witnesses before being forced to close the case for the prosecution. I equally closed the prosecution’s case in one of the two cases pending before the federal high court after taking two witnesses in addition to seven witnesses that had earlier testified.
In both cases, Messrs Mohammed Bello Adoke and Abubakar Aliyu and others exercised their rights by filing their respective no case submissions through their lawyers. Having evaluated the evidence adduced by the ten witnesses who testified before the FCT high court, I rightly conceded that there was no evidence upon which to rely in urging the court to dismiss the no case submission made in respect of counts 1 to 5 out of the 40 counts contained in the charge. I however urged the federal high court to dismiss the no case submission made on behalf of Messrs Mohammed Bello Adoke and Abubakar Aliyu, as they both have cases to answer. I am aware that judgment has been fixed by the federal high court in the no case submission for the 19th of April, 2024.
In these cases, as in others, I had not acted unprofessionally and unethically as alleged but acted both professionally and ethically in discharging my prosecutorial responsibility in all the cases that were being prosecuted.
Now, being a contract staff, whose contract was usually extended based on an application for such extension every year, I decided not to apply for a further extension and to allow it expire, since the then subsisting contract was about to expire by effluxion of time on 31st January, 2024. So, the issue of having been sacked or being denied contract extension on account of what transpired was untrue, as there was no such application before the EFCC.
The summary of the foregoing is that I was never compromised and bribed by Chief Wole Olanipeku SAN, Mr. Mohammed Bello Adoke or any other person in that regard to sabotage the prosecution of the case. I applied myself to the best of my ability to prosecute the case. The fact that the EFCC was unable to adduce evidence to prove counts 1 – 5 should not mean the case was compromised. It is the joy of every prosecutor to win his case, not at all cost, but sometimes when requisite evidence is lacking, there is nothing anyone can do.
Having considered what transpired, I believe the online publication by “The People Gazette’ is an egregious and reprehensible effort orchestrated at tarnishing my character. The newspaper never sought my side of the story before it went on its besmirch expedition. I challenge it to show proof that it did.
I demand a retraction and apology in like manner. I will give no further notice.
Offem I. Uket
